My inside voice

I wasn't feeling so well that morning. Not really sick, but not up to par. Not at full strength. But I still needed to control the room full of third graders and hopefully to teach them something.

I may have flicked the lights - in those days a common trick to get attention. At any rate, I began in barely more than a whisper to explain to my students that I needed their help in being extra attentive because I wasn't able to speak very loudly.

To my delight, it worked. How cool! They got serious and even lowered their tones to match mine. It worked so well, in fact, that I decided I should remember this tactic.

Last night I read a blog post* by Jon Acuff, entitled "When God goes quiet" at Stuff Christians Like. His point was that even when He is quiet, God is still there. I'm glad that I have seen the truth of that in my own life and it's good to be reminded of it.

The article reminded me of that classroom incident and I realized there are other lessons as well. Jon Acuff's lesson was for me the child, the student, the learner, the follower. But what about the lesson for me the teacher, the mentor, the friend, the writer, the influencer? In the classroom that morning, I learned that sometimes, rarely, at least once in a great while, silence can speak louder than noise - and maybe not so rarely. That being the case, could my soft voice (or my silence) be as effective (or maybe even more effective) than my loud voice? Could my whisper cut through the noise better than a strong, bold statement?

I am to be a truth-teller, but maybe that doesn't always have to be with bold, strong statements. Maybe there should be more whispers of affirmation and encouragement from these lips. Certainly I could be using a soft voice more than I do - a voice that is kind and gentle rather than strong and persuasive. I'm not so confident in my ability to be strong and persuasive anyway.

So how about I practice using my inside voice? Maybe, just maybe, it will cut through the noise and maybe even bring a better kind of control to a loud situation. And quite possibly it will be more able to speak peace to ears that are aching from the surrounding din.